Sunday, November 18, 2012

Another One Under My Belt……Literally! :-)

Another what, you ask? Well another one of the special “shots” I have to take every 3 months, that’s what. I don’t know what is worse, the shot or the drive over there. It’s a 1-1/2 hr. drive to the East side of Scottsdale where my Oncologist is located. Traffic is terrible and it's white knuckle the last 1/2 of the way with 70-80 mph traffic with 6-8 lanes bumper to bumper and door to door all the way. You either have to drive it fast and furious or get run over. Not an inch of room to make a "mis-ka-bobble".

The good part is that it is near the Dillon Precision Reloading Company. They are the ones that make the famous Dillon progressive bullet loading presses like the model RL550B that I have. I love shopping there and I was able to pick up all the items I needed to reload the new .45 Cal ACP bullets we are now shooting.

Then, with that done, we went on with our usual shopping. You know the routine, Sam’s, Costco, WalMart and a couple others thrown in and oh yes, the Wine Store. Believe me that fills in your day. But, as usual, we make it home just a couple minutes late for HAPPY HOUR. I was totally worn out. Plus, my butt was beginning to get sore where I got the shot. I swear the nurse uses a caulking gun to give me that shot. Biggest damn syringe I ever saw. But hey, it keeps me alive so I don’t complain ...well, not too much anyway. What a small price to pay, right?

This is Ms. Pats new gun that I am loading the .45 Cal bullets for. I bought this Ruger sr1911 for myself, thinking it was too big a gun for Ms, Pat. When it came in she looked at it and took it in her hand, dry fired it a time or two and said, ”Wow, I like that gun, it feels great in your hand”. I asked her if she would like to shoot it sometime. Of course, she replied “Sure”. I knew if she shot it, it would “blow her away” and she wouldn’t be interested. Hmmm, WRONG. She fired it the first time at a paper plate at about 30’ using factory ammo. She put all 5 rounds into the plate!! I was the one that was “blown away”!

I asked her if she wanted to shoot it again, and she said “Yes, I do”. So I loaded another 5 rounds in the magazine and she squeezed off another 5 rounds and I’ll be! She put another 5 rounds directly into the paper plate. I asked her if it didn’t have a pretty rough recoil? "No", she said “it doesn't”, It's such a large frame and fits your hand so well, it is easy to hold onto and it seems to soften the recoil. She says it's not even as bad as her .40 Cal Glock. She shot it last Tuesday at the Ladies' pistol training session and continues to enjoy it as she gets more and more familiar with it. So, yep, I lost my gun. However, I can’t think of anybody I’d rather lose it to than my dear wife!!

I spent most of Friday setting up the Dillon bullet press with the new dies and equipment that I picked up. You can’t be too careful with this loading stuff and it takes me a little longer that normal, because I check myself several times. Got a few loaded up and took them and the Ruger out in the desert to my favorite spot and found out that the new reloads work fine. Yesterday I reloaded bullets off and on all day. I have several 100 made up, so I should be in good shape. I don’t want to load too many ahead, just in case I want to make an adjustment or two….been there done that!

That’s about all that’s happening around North Ranch, enjoyed watching some football yesterday in between my reloading as all 3 of our favorite college teams won……The Cornhuskers beat Minn, Florida State beat Maryland and Louisiana State beat Ole' Miss. That LSU game was thriller. What a game!! “eh Rollie?

Folks are rolling into North Ranch right and left as everyone returns for the winter. Everybody hollers “Welcome Back” and waves. Soon this will be a bee hive. But it's quiet down here at our little place that we enjoy so much.

We thank you Lord for all the blessings you bestow upon us……..we are ever so grateful and praise You highly.

6 comments:

Mark W.
said...

My oldest son works for Sturm Ruger in Prescott, AZ! He gets some kind of employee discount; I may have to check into the cost of the SR1911, it sure is a nice looking gun. I wouldn't make Ms. Pat angry, sounds like she pretty proficient with all types of firearms.

Don't envy you having to drive through all that miserable traffic to do get a painful shot in the butt. Pain in the ass getting there & back let alone having them add insult to injury while your there. But, like you say, if that's what you gots to do to stay on the green side of the ground, then that's what you gots to do........

That traffic is pretty intense and even more so when you are hauling a couple of horses through it a couple of times a week. I know it is counter-intuitive but I have found getting into either the HOV lane or the one right next to it keeps me out of the road rally that goes on in the outside lanes what with folks trying to enter and exit and actually we get less folks slamming on their brakes, a major issue at highway speeds with horses on board, in those lanes than the others. They also seem to understand I need that space in front of me to stop. And just for the record I did check as long as I have two or more people in the vehicle I can use the HOV lane legally. And as long as people respect that space in front of me I have no trouble keeping pace with the traffic.

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Mike and Pat McFall

We sold our home in Tallahassee, FL and began full-timing 16 years ago. We recently purchased a home at North Ranch and now have a Cabin on our property in the Black Hills...so we are now part-timing again.

We stay on our property in the Black Hills south of Custer in the Summer and at North Ranch in Congress, Arizona in the Winter. We only travel a few months out of the year, visiting kids and friends around the country when we can.

We hope you will join us on our adventures and visit us at our homes when you are in the area. Please feel free to leave us a comment.